the
Kangde Emperor, who governed the Empire of Manchukuo from 1934 until his death in 1967. During his reign, Manchukuo blossomed as a state, but was never reunited with China under Imperial Rule, as Puyi wished. After the defeat of China in 1946, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was set up by Japan, and was later long-term supported by the Japanese government in Tokyo, creating a largely self-sufficient state that rebuilt relations with Japan.
After his death in 1967, his brother, the
Fuxingde Emperor, took over, and governed until his death in the late 1990s. After the Fuxingde Emperor's demise, Pujie's son assumed the throne, becoming the
third, and current, Emperor of Manchukuo.
Ma Zhanshan to many, is a patriot, or a traitor. Defecting from the Nationalist Chinese regime in 1935, he joined the Manchukuo state and vowed to defend it -- it was in this that he gained the alliance of the Japanese Emperor, a man whom in the years prior, had been a sworn enemy. Ma Zhanshan helped reform the Manchurian Army from the inside as a general, and was instrumental in the defeat of the radical Kwangtung officers who attempted to seize control of Manchukuo for themselves. He served as Minister of War for 13 years, giving him effective control as leading commander of the armed forces.
During World War II, he took command of a large regiment of Manchus serving in the heat of the Battle of Beijing, and later, in the Battle of Chongqing. In 1949, three years after the war, he retired, with the incumbent Manchukuo prime minister,
Abraham Kaufman, and Emperor Puyi granting him a life-time award for his service to the Empire. He died on November 29, 1950 in Mukden, satisfied with the work he had done. He was succeeded by
Dr. Kaufman's personal friend, a Japanese military officer whom had been instrumental in the establishment of the large-scale Jewish exodus to Manchuria after the start of
Operation Reinhard and the mass-pogroms in the Soviet Union, as well as the defeat of the Israeli state in their 1947 independence war.
Prime Minister Kaufman and the Emperor cooperated and ordered a monument to him in 1950, shortly before Kaufman was re-elected as Prime Minister for another six-year term.
